Many people appreciate the benefits of walking, while others don’t consider it an important exercise. Studies show that a moderate exercise like walking may have better results than more intensive exercise. The Chinese understood this for a very long time. They believe that regular, moderate exercise improves our resistance to disease and our emotional well being.
Circle Walking (a key practice in Taoism and Qigong)is an ancient Chinese Qigong form believed to have been developed by the Taoists over 4,000 years ago. Taoist circle walking meditation is designed to open and harmonize the meridians of the body. Often called “Rotating in the Worship of Heaven” by Taoist practitioners, this Qigong is done to “refine Qi and spirit through external movement in order to realize internal stillness or emptiness.” The value is not only as a meditation and health exercise, but is effective in martial arts.
Circle Walking quiets a busy (Monkey) mind, promotes health, focuses the mind, and restores your spirit. It also builds internal power, can have some aerobic qualities, increases your physical strength, and makes you more nimble.
While researchers in China traced this practice back to a Taoist sect, Greg Ripley, author of Tao of Sustainability, states that no one is exactly sure where it originated. Not surprisingly, this is another area of controversy. While the “current consensus” is that the Taoists used Circle Walking in Qigong and/or meditation and that Dong Hai Chuan spent time training with this sect prior to incorporating into Bagua Zhang, others belief that Dong’s system is much older.
Whether or not Dong created Circle Walking or learned it from the Taoists will never be known. However, he did incorporate Circle Walking into Buagua Zhang (which he founded). According to Dong Hai Chuan (the founder of Bagua), “Training in martial arts ceaselessly is inferior to walking the circle”. Circle walking is a Bagua Zhang foundation and central practice, but it is not Bagua.
Circle Walking trains you in “quick changes of direction”, which is important in Bagua. When walking the circle in Ba Gua, the body turns and rotates so that the muscles, fascia and the meridians are stimulated by the whole body spiraling action. The mind stays quiet inside while the movements and rotation happen on the outside. The result is a combination of refined strength and internal relaxation.
So why should we Circle Walk?
Circle Walking reduces pain, the risk of strokes, diabetes, and high blood pressure. It is also effective for balancing emotions, weight control, building muscle, and improving memory, digestion, and circulation.
Circle Walking teaches us to how to "seek stillness within movement." It trains both your mind and body to find a “still point inside” while walking in a circular motion with varying speeds, if you desire. Regular practice will feel effortless while inside you feel centered and balanced.
There are so many variations of Circle walking, however, they usually with a single focal point. Walking positions can high, middle, or low. It can also be slow, fast,very fast, very slow and everything in between.
Physically, Circle Walking:
activates and enhances digestion (especially if you do it after a meal),
regulates body weight,
harmonizes brain and heart activities,
connects your upper and lower body,
improves coordination and balance,
helps loosen your lower back (lumbar) and at the same time keeps you nimble and fit,
enhances and generates Qi in the lower Dantian,
improves blood circulation in the lower limbs, and
strengthens your whole being.
Psychologically, Circle Walking:
quiets, calms, and focuses the mind,
opens energy channels,
regulates the breath and calms emotions and tensions,
allows your thoughts and emotions to arise,
generates a feeling of being grounded and in harmony with your surroundings/environment, and
often induces strong positive, feel-good feelings.
Energetically, Circle Walking:
allows us to connect with nature’s spiral energy,
creates a natural breathing rhythm and a whole body calming effect.
Abdominal breathing while rotating in circles roots us to the earth.
It is beyond the scope of this blog, to cover all the variations in Circle Walking. There are, however, some interesting videos of Circle Walking on YouTube and the internet, if you’d like to check them out.
In the meantime, even though it can be done inside, I would encourage you to go out into nature and try Circle Walking. It’s simple,can be done almost anywhere, and needs no special equipment. While, I don’t teach it at this time, I have found it to be a calming and centering Qigong practice.
My next blog will provide some examples, methods, and fine points of Circle Walking.
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